When looking at console sales, people often overlook the network impact. Indeed, we're so focused on hardware numbers that we tend to forget that every PlayStation 4 sold means a potential PlayStation Plus subscription and various PlayStation Network purchases as well. It would appear that Sony's quietly lapping up the success of its latest system, however, as its digital goods business is doing very well for itself.
Projections provided by Super Data Research show that of the top ten selling digital games in January 2015, the PS4 and PS3 accounted for 63 per cent of the sales. This includes full-game purchases, as well as DLC and microtransactions for the listed products. By comparison, the Xbox One and Xbox 360 could muster just 37 per cent of the income, which is quite a stark difference. Of course, this study doesn't take into account the thousands of other downloadable products available for both brands.
Unsurprisingly, it was Grand Theft Auto V that earned the most digital revenue last month, racking up a purported $32 million in total. Remember, this combines game purchases with additional income such as Shark Cards, which are clearly proving a secret winner for Rockstar Games. We've included the full list below, but we're surprised to see FIFA 15 miss out, as we assumed that Ultimate Team was a heavy seller as well.
Either way, are you finding yourself spending more money on goods through the PlayStation Store – or do you still prefer physical items? Upload your thoughts in the comments section below.
Top Ten Digital Games for January 2015 (Super Data Research)
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
- Destiny
- Dying Light
- Battlefield 4
- Resident Evil HD: Remastered
- Minecraft
- Call of Duty: Ghosts
- Madden NFL 15
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II
[source superdataresearch.com, via gamespot.com]
Comments 11
Always hated digital games, wanted the feel of a game, browse through the manual, stack up my games and be proud. But cover arts isn't what it's used to be, manuals are a thing of the past and PS+ taught me how incredible it is to have your games readily available at any time.
With the PS4, One and U I am hesistant to make the jump, cause all my downloads of fhe former gen are worth jack at the newer consoles for some reason. But with the Vita I'm all digital and loving it! There's just one thing I simply don't get: when a games launches just digitally here in the West, Sony offer a incredible $20 price tag for the download, but if a comparable game comes with both a digital and physical release, the download will set you back $40. How does that work actually? Why am I paying $10 to $20 more because other people refuse to download? Shouldn't they just make physical more expensive then and leave us out of it? Sure, there's a silent agreement that retailers are protected and digital should never "unfairly" compete with physical... But in the case of the Vita that's all a load of crap anyway, since retailers aren't giving vita any attention what so ever. So the vita could be the perfect testing ground to see what the absolute sweet spot is for a game to sell better digitally. And for me, no matter how I love my discs... If they knock of $10 - $15 off of every game when bought digitally, it's sayonara discs and cartridges and welcome bigger HDD!
Please watch the language -Tasuki
I dont get Digital games on consoles, on PC (besides being possibly the only way) games are cheaper, ACTUALLY CHEAPER, $10 less than any game, on Consoles theres no benefit from going digital, you are actually giving the company MORE money than by buying the Disc because they save on everything thats related to that.
X Company saves money from selling digital yet nothing from that its actually passed onto the consumer, you just get rekt and have to pay the same $60 dollars
It's a blessing and a curse, I do miss having a physical disc and case, something tangible......however, for me it's outweighed by the plus of just turning on your PS4 and having your whole library instantly accessible. I also enjoy not having to deal with the likes of GameStop or stores in general.
I'm 29 though, the 19 year old me would prefer physical just due to the fact that I could buy used copies on the cheap.
Sticking with all digital though.
Whatever is cheaper. I don't care... Unless it's a RPG that I know I'm going to drop 100+ hours in to. Then I always go digital because it's less wear and tear on the console.
I would go full digital but i found the PS4 menu to be awful, i wish they could use that "metro" system but only with the games, and put netflix, psnow, and the other stuff on another place
its so tedious, even the WiiU has a much better system with its grids, steam being the best, obviously
not to mention i dont think paying the same for getting less content (even if its a box) goes well with me
@Faruko (non indie) digital games actually cost me about $5-$10 more because I always hit my data cap and its $10 for each 50 GB after that. Not only that but if I want to delete the game and reinstall it later, I pay that overage again. And if I want to play in another room on a different PlayStation, I gotta download again (and again an overage fee). Until data caps are gone, (which is highly unlikely in the USA, as my caps are recent-ish additions) there is no way I will buy a full AAA title and potentially pay ~$20 in overage fees over the games life (not to mention the hours and hours spent waiting). No thanks!
And that's not even taking into account the benefits of owning a physical copy.
Until full price digital games are no more expensive than their disc based counterparts then I might consider it but £60 for a digital game is ludicrous
Was a hard copy fan until I got into my iPad. Just this past fortnight I have splurged on digital picking up HD copies of all my PS2 favourites that I had resisted buying because of price. With the Vita birthday sale plus crossbuy to PS3 and my PS+ membership I picked up God of War 1 & 2, Ratchet & Clank 1, 2 & 3, Jak & Daxter 1, 2 & 3, Okami, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and The Sly Trilogy which averaged out to between $6-$7 AU per game. Brings the Store into line with Steam pricing for older games.
Both Sony and Nintendo really need to understand the true value and size of their old legacy classics and aggressively pursue making them available in new remastered formats at competitive prices. Wtb Timespliitters 2 and Klonoa 2 remastered. Their Storefronts also have desperate need of streamlining accessabiliy and backgrounding their incessant demands to update before use.
Realistically hard-copy games haven't existed since the PS2 retired. Gone are the days when buying a game on disc allowed you to play immediately you were home and offline. Your $80 plastic disc and case (booklets are no more) are nothing more than a digital password allowing you to download the true game before you can play anyway. Therefore all games are actually digital downloads whether you like to stroke the case or not. Think about it.
@Boerewors I sold all my xbox games last year and got a decent bit of money, but with this gen now in full swing they would be worth nothing. I like digital too, but with a physical copy you have a bit of equity whichever way the price goes. All the old games you have on the older console are still gonna be there just put your ps3 in another room.
I'm edging more towards digital downloads that's why I upgraded my hard drive to 1.5 gb.. I only buy a disk version of a game if I'm not sure if I will like the game
The worst is that these disc based games are installing 30+ gigs of data . What the hell?
My hardrive is almost full because of this nonsense.
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